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Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson: King and Queen, but only one's got a full house.

There are plenty of similarities between Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson—both were vastly talented singers who passed away at or around age 50, their deaths met by a global outpouring of grief and support.

But when it comes to postmortem finances, the two superstars couldn’t be more different.

Michael Jackson’s estate has pulled in over half a billion dollars since his death in 2009, thanks to the flurry of deals made by co-executors John Branca and John McClain. Those include a $60 million upfront payment for concert film This Is It; a seven-year, ten-project record deal with Sony for $250 million; and a joint venture with Cirque du Soleil called Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour, which is grossing over $2 million per show.

The details of who will handle Houston’s estate are still in flux, but industry insiders agree that there’s no way she’ll approach the King of Pop in terms of earnings for a number of reasons. First of all, Michael Jackson left a trove of unreleased material—enough to land the record-breaking deal with Sony. Though her estate will get a boost from the album sales spike in the wake of her death, Houston didn’t leave behind much in the way of new songs.

“There will undoubtedly be an immediate hit from people buying music,” says entertainment attorney Donald David, who has represented the Tupac Shakur estate. “But if she doesn’t have unrecorded tracks, you’re looking at bargain bin best-of albums … those sorts of things don’t have any kind of lifespan, and they don’t produce a lot of money.”

Of the revenue generated by increased sales of Houston’s music, her estate won’t see as much as Jackson’s does. That’s because Jackson wrote or co-wrote many of his greatest hits, including “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” Other songwriters penned most of Houston’s work, from “I Wanna Dance (With Somebody)” to “I Will Always Love You.”

Dolly Parton wrote the latter, and will therefore receive the publishing revenues from U.S. radio play and licensing to commercials and films. Houston’s estate will only receive artist royalties for record sales and radio play abroad (due the intricacies of U.S. copyright law, only songwriters are paid for radio spins; both songwriters and recording artists are paid across the pond).

To be sure, Houston’s estate will receive plenty of cash from the artist royalties generated by album sales. Michael Jackson sold over 8 million records in the U.S. in the six months after he died, and 20-30 million worldwide. If Houston can do even half that, her estate stands to rake in more than $10 million in the coming year from recorded music alone—and she’s off to a good start, selling 64,000 copies of Whitney: The Greatest Hits the U.S. the day she passed away.